VikesCentric: Adrian already in rarified air

With three games to go, Adrian Peterson currently has the 50th-highest single-season rushing total in NFL history, and he continues to climb the list with every run.

Peterson has already admitted he's thinking about the record of 2,105 yards set by Eric Dickerson of the 1984 Los Angeles Rams. All he needs is 169 yards per game over the final three games to break Dickerson's record – which, when you consider the fact he's averaged 165 over the last five games, seems remarkably within reach.

His offensive line, which is also focused on making some history via Peterson, seems eager to do anything it can to help him get there. Listening to center John Sullivan on KFAN Tuesday morning, you'd think they might be more pumped up about getting the record than Peterson.

Of course, as they have been doing all season, Peterson and his line will be attempting to make a little history over the next three games against eight and nine-man defensive fronts. That's not going to change regardless of how Christian Ponder performs. The loss of Percy Harvin made the Vikings offense even more one-dimensional than it already was – making Peterson's exploits all the more astounding. In addition, the fact he's doing all this less than a year after having his knee surgically reconstructed is nothing short of unprecedented.

Teams know Peterson is going to run. They watch film of his runs and then scheme to stop them, paying comically-little attention to the Vikes' passing game. And yet, all Adrian does is pile up one 100-yard game after another.

The superlatives have run out.

In an effort to gain some perspective on just how incredible Peterson's run at 2,000 yards has been given the complete and utter lack of a passing threat, I turned to the statistical record and drummed up some pretty compelling data.

Below is a list of the 28 seasons in which a player has rushed for 1,700 yards. Yes, I know Peterson is only at 1,600, but I think we can all agree he'll get at least 100 more this year. Besides, I didn't want a list of 50. I have included each player's average yards per carry and, as a means of measuring the help he gets from his team's passing attack, the average yards per pass attempt of each player's team.

Keep in mind that Peterson is currently averaging 6.0 yards per carry and Ponder is currently averaging 6.0 yards per pass attempt.

Player

Rushing yards

Year

Team

YPC

Team's Passing YPA

Eric Dickerson

2,105

1984

Los Angeles Rams

5.6

6.7

Jamal Lewis

2,066

2003

Baltimore Ravens

5.3

6.1

Barry Sanders

2,053

1997

Detroit Lions

6.1

6.7

Terrell Davis

2,008

1998

Denver Broncos

5.1

7.8

Chris Johnson

2,006

2009

Tennessee Titans

5.6

6.5

O.J. Simpson

2,003

1973

Buffalo Bills

6.0

5.8

Earl Campbell

1,934

1980

Houston Oilers

5.2

7.1

Ahman Green

1,883

2003

Green Bay Packers

5.3

7.1

Barry Sanders

1,883

1994

Detroit Lions

5.7

6.7

Shaun Alexander

1,880

2005

Seattle Seahawks

5.1

7.7

Jim Brown

1,863

1963

Cleveland Browns

6.4

7.6

Tiki Barber

1,860

2005

New York Giants

5.2

6.7

Ricky Williams

1,853

2002

Miami Dolphins

4.8

6.7

Walter Payton

1,852

1977

Chicago Bears

5.5

6.8

Jamal Anderson

1,846

1998

Atlanta Falcons

4.5

8.8

Eric Dickerson

1,821

1986

Los Angeles Rams

4.5

5.9

O.J. Simpson

1,817

1975

Buffalo Bills

5.5

7.5

LaDainian Tomlinson

1,815

2006

San Diego Chargers

5.2

7.3

Eric Dickerson

1,808

1983

Los Angeles Rams

4.6

7.0

Larry Johnson

1,789

2006

Kansas City Chiefs

4.3

7.2

Emmitt Smith

1,773

1995

Dallas Cowboys

4.7

7.6

Adrian Peterson

1,760

2008

Minnesota Vikings

4.8

7.1

Marcus Allen

1,759

1985

Los Angeles Raiders

4.6

6.9

Larry Johnson

1,750

2005

Kansas City Chiefs

5.2

7.9

Terrell Davis

1,750

1997

Denver Broncos

4.7

7.2

Gerald Riggs

1,719

1985

Atlanta Falcons

4.3

6.5

Emmitt Smith

1,713

1992

Dallas Cowboys

4.6

7.3

Edgerrin James

1,709

2000

Indianapolis Colts

4.4

7.7

As you can see from the table above, Peterson is already honing in on pretty exclusive company.

·Only three players have ever rushed for 1,700 yards while averaging 6.0 yards per carry.

·Only three players have ever rushed for 1,700 yards while their team averaged less than 6.5 yards per pass attempt.

·Most incredibly, only one player (O.J. Simpson in 1973) has ever rushed for 1,700 yards while averaging as many or more yards per carry as his team averaged per pass attempt.

In other words, Simpson's 1973 Bills also had no pass threat for opposing defenses to consider.

The numbers don't lie. Regardless of whether he breaks the record or even gets to 2,000 yards, if those yards per attempt averages hold up over the course of the next three games, Peterson's season should be regarded as one of the most impressive ever by a running back.

VikesCentric is written by Twin Cities football writers Bo Mitchell of SportsData, Arif Hasan of Vikings Territory, Aj Mansour, who hosts Minnesota Vikings Overtime on KFAN, and Joe Oberle a long-time Minnesota based writer. The VikesCentric crew crunches numbers, watches video and isn't shy about saying what's on their minds.